Happy

Here is something even more interesting.

We have a flight HKG-LAX-MIA on AA miles in J.

For whatever reasons CX has NOT blocked Row 11 on this flight so we were able to select 11A and 12A - we prefer our own window seats versus sitting in the middle.

What happened that follows is it has caused a "people traveled not matched with seats" on AA site - I could not get AA seat assignment whether on QR site or AA site on the LAX-MIA leg - it kept giving me a system error to tell me try again.

Finally I called AA - the first agent tried and could NOT assign us the seats on AA segment then she found out the above error message on her screen - she said AA only saw one person is assigned on Row 12, the other person who had Row 11 is not showing up in AA system at all - hence the system thinks the number of passengers traveling does not match with the connecting flight! She told me to call CX to attach Row 11 to the passenger and sent the information to AA before AA could assign seats on the LAX-MIA leg.

By now I figured out I had to remove our CX seat assignments from the mini cabin to the main J cabin before AA could see it then once AA assigned us seats both on the CX segment and on the AA segment. After that I could go back to CX to re-select our Row 11 and 12 seats. I decided to call AA again hoping to find another agent who would go along with my experiment. The 2nd agent was more helpful and was willing to go along with me in the process. Once she assigned us to the CX main cabin, magically AA system allowed her to assign us to the Row 2 A&C on the LAX-MIA segment. I thanked her and hang up, returned to CX site and moved us back to the Row 11 and 12. Now everything is in order.

It is a surreal experience. It also tells me that CX indeed has had some updates on its seat assignment system now it is based on Elite status but the restriction in F cabin, can be bypassed from going thru QR. However there is no go around for Row 11 in the J mini cabin. Further more, if you have connecting flight on AA, you need to take care the AA seat assignment first before tackle the CX seat assignment. Else you have my surreal experience and take a good bit of efforts to find out why and how to fix it.

Finally telling my experiences on AA forum in the hope that might help others who might encounter the same issues are a waste of my effort because in AA forum many are EXPs who dont see any problem due to their OW Emerald status. Yet they did not factor this important info into the situation but kept telling others there shouldn't be any issue - WRONG. Finally a couple Plats chimed in to report they, too, also had issues. Of course lowly Gold and Peons all would have same issues which as for now if you are in F you could use QR to take care of it but if you are in J and want to get Row 11 - there is nothing you could do unless CX does not block it. And you need to be mindful on your connecting flights' seat assignments.